It's part of a writer's profession as it's part of a spy's profession to prey on the community to which he's attached to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely.

I think that some books are more successful than others to certain readers. People who read my books for the humor they're going to love one book. People who read my books for the mystery they might not like that book quite as much.

Well it's a humor strip so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if in addition I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me so much the better.

I think that different pleasures work for different readers - a friend of mine won't read anything that's not a cardiovascular sort of page-turner. I tend to care less about plot but I'm a sucker for humor and strangeness.

Whether it's viewers of the show or readers of my columns and books I'm consistently impressed with their wit humor and insight. That goes for about 95 percent of the audience. The other five percent are why the 'Delete' option and restraining orders were invented.

Wherever my story takes me however dark and difficult the theme there is always some hope and redemption not because readers like happy endings but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

More people have more access to more readers for less money than ever before in history. It means a lot of dross but it means a lot of very talented people can find and nurture a readership in ways that were not possible twenty years ago. From a creative perspective that is all that writing is about.

I love readings and my readers but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful but I'm annoying and a phony.

By helping readers understand these mechanics I hope they will appreciate why freedom is for everyone why it is essential for our security and why the free world plays a critically important role in advancing democracy around the globe.

If ebooks mean that readers' freedom must either increase or decrease we must demand the increase.

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.

I cook a little bit. I make a Hungarian dish called chicken paprikash that's out of this world. I'll give a heads-up to all of your readers that it doesn't have to be between Thai and Mexican every night. Toss some Hungarian in every once in a while. You will not be sorry. Good solid peasant food.

The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always young readers will be the real losers.

My whole damn family was nice. I don't think I've imagined it. It's true. Maybe it has to do with being brought up as Christian Scientists. Half of my relatives were Readers or Practitioners in the church.

Our ministry is supported entirely by faith through the missions gifts of readers who receive my messages every three weeks. We seldom mention money and we never burden supporters.

But because we've all been readers we know what the experience is like and we hope that what certain writers have given to us we will give to someone.

Literature overtakes history for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

By presenting a faithful and honest record of my experience as a mother I hope to show both my readers and my children how truth can redeem even what you fear might be the gravest of sins.

If you know how to read you have a complete education about life then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don't know how to read you don't know how to decide. That's the great thing about our country - we're a democracy of readers and we should keep it that way.

The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to.

Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.

We have newsreaders behaving like actors lowering their voices if it's a sad story as if we didn't know it's a sad story. There isn't a single cool newsreader.

By and large the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is after all a form of communication.

I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me and my website has built up a community of readers which is a lot of fun.